A curious event happened in the late 19th century in Siberia. When the Trans-Siberian Railroad was being constructed and Tomsk was to be one of its main transit points, the Tomsk guild of horse carriers raised a sufficient sum to bribe the designers so that the railroad was instead constructed via the small town of Novonikolaevsk, now Novosibirsk. In less than 100 years, Novosibirsk became a major transportation hub and the third largest city in Russia, while the economic complex of Tomsk has been suppressed due to lack of access to main trunk lines.
Monday, March 06, 2006
A historical lesson on unintended consequences
From the January/February edition of the BISNIS Bulletin:
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
2 comments:
an amazing story - thanks!!!
I'm sure it's not the only station built outside a big town, miles from anywhere. Normally it was cheaper to build a station on the outskirts, and there was not always enough money anyway, so probably the designers were pleased to have cheaper land prices as well as a bribe.
Post a Comment